Volume 519 Issue 7544, 26 March 2015

The UK research assessment should inspire everybody to reward excellent societal impacts.

The next few years will see NASA missions probe the innermost secrets of gas giants.

The common fear is that intelligent machines will turn against humans. But who will save the robots from each other, and from us, asks Hutan Ashrafian.

Panel discussion about the shortcomings of science sparks chatter about possible remedies.

The week in science: Pitcairn islands to gain massive marine reserve; US sets rules on fracking; and the head of Japan’s RIKEN Institute quits.

Nature watches a porcine autopsy that will help create a powerful animal model of diabetes.

Ten-year US-led project seeks to plug gaps in global-warming simulations.

Encrypted analysis of data in the cloud would allow secure access to sensitive information.

Early data from Dawn spacecraft bring scientists closer to clearing up mystery about dwarf planet.

US funding agencies are turning to a Silicon Valley entrepreneur to focus fledgling biomedical companies on success — even when that means making a scientific course correction.

Support resilience and promote carbon storage, say Silvano Fares and colleagues.

Heritable human genetic modifications pose serious risks, and the therapeutic benefits are tenuous, warn Edward Lanphier, Fyodor Urnov and colleagues.

Henry Nicholls savours the posthumous autobiography of the pioneering conservationist Alison Jolly.

Daniel Cressey reviews five of the week's best science picks.

Blockade of the enzyme PDE9 prevents degradation of the molecule cyclic GMP, which has been shown to protect against heart failure. The finding indicates that PDE9 inhibition might be a drug target for treating this condition. See Letter p.472

Films of ice less than 1 nanometre thick, sandwiched between sheets of graphene, have been observed to adopt a square lattice structure quite different from the widely occurring hexagonal structure of bulk ice. See Letter p.443

Chromosomes must be faithfully duplicated in each cell-division cycle to ensure genome integrity. The in vitro reconstitution of DNA-replication initiation in yeast allows mechanistic studies of this fundamental process. See Article p.431

Analysis of the interaction between a photon and an ensemble of some 3,000 atoms trapped between two mirrors has revealed a form of multi-atom quantum entanglement that has no counterpart in classical mechanics. See Letter p.439

Genetically identical cells can have many variable properties. A study of correlations between cells in a lineage explains paradoxical inheritance laws, in which mother and daughter cells seem less similar than cousins. See Letter p.468

Astronomical observations of a luminous galaxy that has a central, mass-accreting supermassive black hole reveal how such entities launch and propel gas through galaxies at high speeds. See Letter p.436

A new MAP4K4–moesin–talin–β1-integrin pathway regulating endothelial cell motility was discovered through chemical and siRNA screens; loss of Map4k4 or inhibition of MAP4K4 kinase activity altered the sprout morphology of endothelial cells during angiogenesis by blocking moesin phosphorylation, which regulates the disassembly of focal adhesions, demonstrating that this pathway is involved in both normal and pathological angiogenesis.

It has long been a goal to reconstitute eukaryotic DNA replication; here a purified in vitro system from budding yeast containing 16 factors, themselves composed of 42 polypeptides, fulfils the staged process of origin-dependent initiation, including its regulation by kinases.

Observations of an ultrafast accretion-disk wind in the X-ray spectrum of a nearby ultraluminous infrared galaxy support the theory that such winds affect the evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies.

The detection of a single photon from a laser interacting with an atomic ensemble is shown to produce entanglement of almost 3,000 atoms; in contrast to previous production of multi-atom entanglement, the highly non-classical nature of the present entangled state is verified by measurement of a negative quasiprobability distribution.

The structure of the low-dimensional water confined in hydrophobic pores is shown, using electron microscopy and supported by molecular dynamics simulations, to be ‘square ice’, which does not have the conventional tetrahedral hydrogen bonding.

Droplets of mixed water and propylene glycol deposited on clean glass exhibit a contact angle but do not suffer from contact line pinning; their motion can be controlled by the vapour emitted from neighbouring droplets to create a variety of autonomous fluidic machines with integrated sensing and motility capabilities.

An increase in the frequency of organized deep convection—essentially a large aggregation of heavily precipitating and largely stratiform clouds—is behind most of the recent increases in tropical precipitation.

Inhibiting projections from the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus to a specific division of the amygdala prevents fear conditioning in mice, indicating an important role for the thalamus–amygdala circuit in establishing and maintaining fear responses.

Dissociating early from late fear memory retrieval in rats reveals that while the projection from the prelimbic prefrontal cortex to the amygdala is critical for fear memory retrieval at early time points, a separate circuit involving the paraventricular region of the dorsal midline thalamus is critical for fear memory retrieval at late time points, establishing the paraventricular region as a critical maintenance/retrieval node during the transition from short- to long-term fear memory.

Some insects have alternative wing morphs, one that is long-winged and changes habitat to follow resources, and one that is short-winged and flightless but has high fertility; here, the molecular details of this switch are revealed, with opposite effects of two insulin receptors controlling the development of different wing morphs in the planthopper.

Precise measurement of cell-cycle duration in thousands of mammalian cells reveals correlations among cousin cells, but no such correlations between mother and daughter cells; recapitulating this finding using a deterministic model suggests that observed cellular heterogeneities in cell-cycle duration may be attributable to deterministic processes, and eventually be controlled.

The inhibition, in mice, of the phosphodiesterase PDE9A, which specifically regulates natriuretic-peptide-coupled cGMP signalling, is independent of nitric oxide and is upregulated in failing human hearts, and can reverse pre-established stress-induced heart disease.

The mTORC1 protein kinase complex integrates nutrient and growth stimuli to modulate signalling pathways that regulate cellular metabolism and physiology, but the molecular nature of the amino acid sensing mechanism at the lysosome is unknown; here, an orphan member of the human solute carrier group of proteins, SLC38A9, is shown to be an integral component of the lysosomal machinery that can directly sense amino acids and activate mTORC1.

The addition of the N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) mark to primary microRNAs by METTL3 in mammalian cells is found to promote the recognition of these microRNA precursors by DGCR8, a component of the microprocessor complex.

The single-stranded nature of RNAs synthesized in the cell gives them great scope to form different structures, but current methods to measure RNA structure in vivo are limited; now, a new methodology allows researchers to examine all four nucleotides in mouse embryonic stem cells.

A method, termed hiCLIP, has been developed to determine the RNA duplexes bound by RNA-binding proteins, revealing an unforeseen prevalence of long-range duplexes in 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs), and a decreased incidence of SNPs in duplex-forming regions; the results also show that RNA structure is able to regulate gene expression.

Centralized laboratories offer an alternative for researchers with a predilection for the latest technology.

So you want to be a star?

Materials researchers are taking cues from specific plants and animals that make substances that could endow humans with superhero powers.

The sturdy, stretchy, sticky silks spun by spiders have inspired engineers to design pioneering medical devices such as artificial tendons and corneas.

Characteristics adapted from lizards, ivy and other natural materials could help to engineer everyday objects with remarkable properties.

Bioinspired fibres and coatings that can repel water, oil and other liquids form the basis of cutting-edge cloth.

The mechanism used by mussels to stick to slippery rocks is the idea behind glue that could mend broken bones.

Researchers are borrowing tricks from armadillo shells and mother-of-pearl to create replacements for human bone and to develop a new generation of protective clothing.

Miniature versions of hearts, lungs and other organs are heralding a bright future for drug research and discovery.

Wanted: biomaterials for a risky journey. Giovanni Traverso and Robert Langer explain the gastrointestinal frontier.

The Nature Index 2015 Asia-Pacific reveals strong overall results from the traditional science leaders in this region. In addition, some smaller countries excel in specific areas.

Increased investment levels continue to signal China's intention of becoming a global research leader and structural reform has been implemented to encourage collaboration on the country's acute needs — such as clean energy.

Reforms are underway to make best use of tight research budgets, but it remains unclear if changes will address Japan's many challenges or further destabilize the deeply unsettled science powerhouse.

Working to build a 'creative economy', the country has boosted its significant science spending with researchers particularly focusing on nanotechnology, nuclear fusion and stem-cell research.

Amid sweeping funding cuts and an often hostile political environment, the country's science leaders look outward for multi-disciplinary collaboration and prepare to take the long-term strategic view.

Space-travel success inspires the growing science and technology community, but financial difficulties create obstacles and industry is being called upon to take up more of the financial burden.

Even Asia-Pacific's smaller players — notably Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand — work to improve their scientific and technical capabilities, while several tiny nations in the region are beginning to shine.

A description of the terminology and methodology used in this supplement, and a guide to the functionality available free online at natureindex.com

Asia-Pacific's leading institutions for high–quality science, ordered by weighted fractional count (WFC) for 2014. Also shown are the total number of articles, and the change in WFC from 2013. Articles are from the 68 natural science journals that comprise the Nature Index (see A guide to the Nature Index, page S75).

Millions of years of evolution have made the biological world into a supremely effective materials development laboratory. Nature Outlook: Biomaterialsexamines the many ways in which solutions created by the natural world — by spiders, mussels, geckos, lotus leaves and more — are inspiring technological imitations that surpass some of the best existing human-engineered substances.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to some of the world's most dynamic centres of science and technology. The region produces more than a quarter of the publications in the global Nature Index, and China is placed second in the world for the total number of science papers published in 2014. Funding allocation and policy decisions in each country will play a large part in determining the region's scientific capabilities in the coming years.

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE. The UK has been assessing the quality of its university research for three decades. Until recently, the evaluation process focused on the excellence of research from an academic perspective. In the latest round, completed in 2014, the UK included socioeconomic impact. This supplement highlights the myriad ways in which UK research benefits society at home and overseas.